Caught Up in the Bigger Story

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God is faithful. We sing to God the goodness of God. But we also need to speak the goodness of God to one another. It’s one of the reasons we’re in community with each other—to speak the goodness of God, and seeing the goodness of God in this church.

I’ve seen the goodness of God in our church—the church that y’all… that’s because I was in Texas for a few years—y’all planted about nine years ago. As you know, our church started. You may not know this, but about a year ago—coming up on a year—we started the Refuge Safe Outdoor Space, which provides safe, secure, sanitary places for our neighbors who live on the streets to come and to experience security and safety and get some case management and some support as they move towards stability.

And one of the beautiful, unforeseen gifts of this space—and honestly, one of the miracles of this space—has been the men we’ve employed to be onsite managers. These are men, mostly in their mid to late 60s, who give about eight hours a shift. And they are a consistent presence onsite. We don’t call them security. We say that people in that situation are used to being watched. Rarely are they seen. And so, they are our seers. They see the people that we work with, and they’re a presence of help, care, and support.

And the beautiful thing they’ve told me over and over again—because many of these men, not all of them, but they gave the first part of their lives, the majority of their life, to their own addictions and struggles—like they struggled mentally and physically with addiction and were on and off the street themselves. And they just know the struggle.

And so they told me many times, “Jesse, I am so thankful to be a part of something that matters. I’m so thankful to give my life and my time to something that actually makes a difference, especially for people that are experiencing what I experienced so many years ago. I feel like I’m giving back some of what I took.”

And in those men—and in their eyes, and in their just countenance—I see what I see in all of us: this need and desire for purpose. Right? For significance. To be a part of something that is bigger than your small life. That your small story be a part of a bigger story. To have significance and purpose beyond yourself. To have a sense that your life matters beyond just surviving—right? Just making it. But to actually contribute to the thriving of the world and of others.

To know that the story of our lives fits in with the greater story of what God is doing—to restore all of creation, to restore humanity, to heal and renew the world.

And I really do see this in each and every one of you. I can look at each one of you very intentionally, because there’s just a few of us here, because you…

And so I see this in you. I see this as you have given your lives to your professions. Some of you are nurses. Some of you have given your life to education. Some of you are engineers. Some of you are software engineers. Some of you are in the business sphere. And you give your life not just to earn more money, but to be a part of something bigger—to contribute to something better, to make the world around you and the people’s lives you intersect with better.

And it’s beautiful. And this is because you have been changed by God—that you, the Holy Spirit, has entered your life and softened your heart, and it turns you outward towards others. And it’s also a gift because this is what you were made for. Like, you were made to be a part of something bigger. That even before the Fall—right?—God places humanity in a garden, in the earth, in all creation, and says, “Be fruitful, multiply, steward. Be a part of something bigger than yourself.” Right?

You’re not just creating a little plot of land for you and yours. It’s like, “We’re going to expand this thing. We’re going to be fruitful. We’re going to multiply.” It’s part of the human experience.

And so this is exactly what Paul is reminding us of today in this part of Colossians. Paul begins—remember, his letter praising the Colossians for the fact that they are following Jesus. He has heard of their love for one another. He’s heard of their faith and allegiance to Jesus. He’s heard of their hope that God is on the move, doing something amazing in the world—healing and restoring.

And he’s saying, “You are taking a part of it.” In verse six of chapter one, he reminds them of the good news—that Jesus is ruling, and his loving and liberating rule is touching every single part of their life and is bearing fruit in all the world. The good news is on the move. The story of God’s healing and restoration is happening. And it’s beginning, he says, right in the Colossian church.

And it’s also beginning right here at Foothills Fellowship, on the corner of Tramway and Candelaria. And it’s beginning in your homes. It’s beginning with individuals being reconnected with one another. It’s spreading as they invite others into the good news story that God is working. It’s advancing as they invest their lives in God’s story of redemption.

And then remember, he reminds them of the source of this good news, of the content of this good news, of the subject of their message, of the power that makes it possible for this good news to bear fruit. And—Sunday school answer—it is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Remember Colossians 1:15–23, this epic hymn of the supremacy of Jesus Christ. He says he’s Jesus—the image of the invisible God. Jesus, the one through whom all things were created. Jesus, the one who sustains all things and holds all things together. Jesus, the one who defeated death by death and rose to new life and offers that life.

And it says he’s reconciling all things—all things, all things—by the blood of his cross. That’s what God is doing. He reminds them: every broken relationship—humanity’s broken relationship with creation, humanity’s broken relationship with one another, humanity’s broken relationship with God—and creation itself is being healed and restored. Because the one who created it all entered into the story, became a victim of our story, and overcame, and offers us this new life, this new possibility.

And so this is where we join with Paul. Verse 23, toward the end of what we looked at last time, he reminds us: “This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature”—every creature, not just human beings—“every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become…” Read that last word: “servant.”

A servant. Paul has been captured by the sheer bigness of God’s story—the story that God is telling through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit—that God is renewing the whole cosmos. He’s bringing it back to where it was meant to be. And he gives his life in service to this story. He dedicates the story of his life to be a part of the big story of what God is doing in the world. And then he does it with joy.

And why wouldn’t you, if you were part of such an epic story? Why wouldn’t you?

He says, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering.” Don’t let that pass by, because that’s something that we hear—a lot of you grew up in the church—but that’s a very contradictory statement: to rejoice in suffering.

“For you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake…” Why does he do it? “For the sake of his body, which is the church.” Paul is a self-sacrificing servant for the sake of God’s healing work in the world. He serves the King of Kings—the one who rules not by dominion but by love and liberation. And he is a messenger of that loving, liberating rule that is going throughout the world.

And this causes suffering in his life. Why is there suffering in such a beautiful message?

Because there’s resistance to it. There’s resistance. Resistance from the powers and principalities—the dying gasp of resistance of those who have been defeated, who see their end coming. They resist the goodness coming into the world. Resistance from broken systems. Resistance from human hearts. Resistance from fallen creation.

Now, I want to clarify really quick, because this is a little bit… you might be asking, “Well, what does it mean that Paul is filling up what’s lacking in Christ’s suffering or in Christ’s afflictions?”

What he’s not saying is that Jesus’ suffering was insufficient. It’s not that there’s something more that needs to be done by Jesus. It’s important to say that Jesus’ death and resurrection fully accomplished our salvation.

What Paul means is that the victory—the victory has been won—but it has not yet been fully realized. Make sense?

One example people use is the inauguration of a new president. They’re voted in, right, in November, but they’re not inaugurated until January-ish. Is that right? I can’t remember exactly. So there’s a couple of months in between the victory and the realization of that victory.

And so, just extend that over a couple thousand years. That’s a little bit what’s happening—is that Jesus won the decisive battle, but there is resistance to his rule and reign. And when he returns, he will fully realize his kingship, and every tribe, tongue, and nation will fall down at his feet and worship and proclaim him to be Lord.

And so we are in the “already–not yet.” The in-between-the-times time. We are in the already. The Kingdom of God is entering in, it’s breaking in, it’s bearing fruit in all the world. The healing is taking place. But there’s still resistance. It’s not yet. It’s not fully realized. And so there’s a battle that wages. So the new creation is on the move.

And so, until the new creation is complete, the body of Christ—you and me, the Church—will experience suffering as we live out Christ’s healing and liberating work in the world. As we take part in the resistance of all that brings death, death will resist, and there will be suffering. And so he’s completing the suffering that is to take place.

And one day, when Jesus returns, that suffering will be complete. It’ll be done. The suffering comes to an end. And as it says in Revelation, every tear will be wiped away from every face that has cried due to pain, suffering, oppression, division. Every wrong will be made right.

And the tree of life—I love that part in Revelation—there will be a tree in the middle of the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem. And it says, the fruit of that tree is for the healing of the nations.

But until that day, there is service. Until that day, there’s costly, sacrificial love. Until that day, there is suffering for the sake of healing.

And so Paul goes on to say, “To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

It’s important to say that this isn’t about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and like baring your teeth and going for it. This is an empowered life. This is an energized life by the power of the Holy Spirit that has been unleashed in the world.

And so this is why Paul is joyful in suffering. He’s joyful because he’s part of a bigger story, and he’s living out the purpose and significance he was made for. He’s joyful because he’s captured by the cosmic, epic-like scope of God’s redemptive work. He’s joyful because he’s a part of this story, and he’s suffering because he’s giving his life to it.

And so, it’s a joy to suffer. It’s a joy to serve. Because the story is so big, the pain is worth it.

You know, some things are worth suffering for. I think of giving birth to a child. I’ve never given birth to a child—to clarify—but I can’t think of something more appropriate to speak of. I mean, the reorganization of body and hormones and priorities. Like, one’s life becomes all about another life. Right?

And you just talk about the months of preparation, the months of inconvenience. Some of you experiencing it right now, right? Yes, yes. Some of you are experiencing this. And you are leading up to this, and you’re sick, and you’re tired, and you’re feeding not only yourself but something else—someone else.

And then the work begins. You go into labor. Excruciating. Painful. Scary. I can’t imagine it. Excruciating pain.

But what’s the fruit? What’s the fruit of all that?

A new life. Right? And almost all of that—again, I haven’t done it—but all of it melts to the back. And I know you remember it, but it’s like, “Oh, there’s a baby. There’s a life. There’s a child.” New life. New possibilities. New hope.

We even think they’re cute—even though they’re not.

And then you continue. It doesn’t stop there. “Oh good, it’s done.” Oh man.

I remember bringing little daughter Juliette home. She’s so tiny. Isn’t it crazy how tiny little newborns are? And you’re supposed to put them in a car seat? I feel like I’m gonna break them, you know?

Then your whole life is reorganized around caring for, warming, feeding, protecting, educating, nurturing this life. And it goes on for years and years and years and years and years, where you reprioritize your whole story to bring someone else into this story and to see that their story comes to its full realization. Right?

So some things are worth suffering for. Some things are worth reorganizing your life for. Some things are a joy. And we rejoice in the suffering of something that’s bigger than ourselves.

Some things are so meaningful, they’re worth giving our life for.

That’s what Paul has discovered. You know Paul—in 2 Corinthians—he describes in chapter 11, he kind of gives a list of all that he’s experienced in pursuit of spreading this good news, of joining the mission of God in the world, of joining the resistance.

And he says five times he was flogged with 39 lashes. Five times, 39 lashes. It was three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned and left for dead. He survived shipwreck three times. Once, he spent a full day and night adrift at sea. He faced danger from rivers, from bandits, from his own people, from false believers. He knew hunger. He knew cold. He knew exposure. He knew exhaustion.

And yet he boasts. He boasts that it’s not his strength. It’s his weakness. It’s God strengthening him to live the story.

So I wanted to do a little boardwalk, okay? I call it boardwalk because that sounds cool. It’s a board… I don’t know. Hopefully you can see this. Try to remove all that obstructs it. But I want to—

I came across this little way of sharing the big story of what God is doing in the world, and I think it perfectly—or very adequately—describes what Paul is talking about. All that he has described about the good news and the story that he’s caught up in service to. And so I think this is a beautiful way of describing the big story that God is a part of.

So hopefully I can do this.

But let’s start with the world that we currently experience, all right? The world that we live in, even now—there is a lot, there’s a lot of good in the world, right? There’s a lot of beauty.

There’s also a lot of pain. We just spoke of 170 Christians being kidnapped and tortured, and they don’t know where they are. We see sexism and racism. We see authoritarianism on the rise. We see the environment dying. And there’s all kinds of pain and suffering in the world—in our families, in our systems. People are left alone. And so there’s all kinds of pain in the world.

And we find ourselves longing and aching for something better, don’t we? And you start to ask yourself, “What is this longing pointing to? Why would we have this longing? Why would we have this ache?”

And you start to think about, well, when I’m hungry, it’s a longing for something like food, and food exists. When I’m thirsty, it’s a longing for water, and water exists.

So maybe our longing for a better world indicates that a better world has existed—or may someday, in fact, exist.

And according to the Christian story, a better world did exist. God designed this world for good. He spoke the world into existence.

And in this world, humanity walked in great interdependent relationship with creation. Creation cared for humanity, and humanity cared for creation. And in this world, humanity loved and cared and served for one another. They were focused on one another. They loved one another and cared for one another.

And in this world, God walked with humanity, and humanity walked in perfect relationship with God. It was beautiful. It’s designed by God for good. Designed for good. God said the world—saw all that he made—and said it is good. There’s shalom.

So what went wrong?

Well, in this world, we acknowledged that God is our authority, that we acknowledged that God is the good creator, that he is the Lord and his loving and liberating rule is at work here. And we submitted to that.

But then we said, “No. Actually, I don’t want God to be in charge. I’ll be in charge. Actually, I’ll be in charge.” And we made the world about ourselves.

And instead of caring for creation, we began to use the planet for our own devices. Right? Instead of serving one another, we began to use people instead of love them—for our own ends. Instead…

And then this affects our relationship with God. Right? Instead of walking with God in intimate relationship, we begin to fear God. We begin to hide from God. We begin to reject God.

And that divides and destroys and damages that relationship with God. So we live in a world that is damaged by evil—not destroyed completely—but damaged, affected.

So you might ask, “Well, what did God do? Why is God leaving us alone? What is he going to—? Is he going to intercede?”

And the Christian story says, actually, yes. God did come into this broken world. He did not leave it on its own. But he does it in a surprising way.

God himself, the Creator, comes into this world—broken, damaged by evil, separated, isolated, fearful. He comes in, and he starts talking about this thing called the Kingdom of God—the rule and reign of God. He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, release to the captives.” The year of Jubilee.

He comes healing people and pushing back disease and darkness and all the damage of evil. He starts challenging authorities and oppressive systems. And he starts speaking of this intimacy that he has with God. And that if you follow me, “I am in the Father, and you are in me, and you can know relationship with God.”

And so then what happens to Jesus? He’s crucified on a Roman cross, right? And when he dies, he takes all the damage caused by us and inflicted upon us. He takes all the damage into himself, and he takes it into the grave. And all that damage—all that evil—the power of it dies with him.

And then he rises to life. He rises to life victorious over Satan, sin, and death, showing that the evil that we’ve done to one another does not have the final word.

He restores—for better. He wins our forgiveness with God. He starts to heal the brokenness of the planet. And as we start to follow Jesus, we begin to learn what it means to be human again. We begin to live in better relationship with creation. We begin to love and forgive one another of the ways that we’ve harmed one another and care for one another. We begin to remember what we were designed for.

And then we begin to see, “Hey, we were meant for more. We were meant to be a part of the restoration of all things.” That Jesus came into the world. He healed us. He healed humanity. And maybe we can be a part. In fact—not even maybe—we are invited into the healing of all things. We are invited.

We remember what it looks like to love and forgive, and we start turning—because we’ve been healed and forgiven. Our heart of stone has been turned to a heart of flesh. We turn away from inward selfishness. We turn outward. And we begin to see that the healing God has worked in us, we can begin to work in the world.

And Jesus sends us together to heal. We are part of the big story that God is extending into the world. We are sent together, empowered by the Spirit and strengthened by community with one another, to go out and to challenge the systems of justice, to go out and to bring healing to the planet, to go out and spread the message of forgiveness and hope.

Now, almost done.

But why couldn’t we—? A lot of people care about the damage being done. And a lot of people want to engage a better world and see better things happen. But why can’t we just go from here to here? Can’t we just start working for a better world?

Well, here’s the thing. Our resources are too limited. Our motivations are too mixed up. We don’t have the energy. We don’t have the resources. Our motivations are damaged by evil. And sometimes, in the work of releasing people from oppression, we become the oppressor. Right? The oppressed become the oppressor.

We need healing before we can pursue healing. And so we have to have the resources of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to be healed in order to extend healing.

And so Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the one who heals the world, heals us, and empowers us to be a part of the healing in the world.

And so the question is: Where do you find yourself? Where are you?

Are you an ostrich with its head in the sand? “Everything’s perfect as it should be.” You may be.

Are you overwhelmed and finding yourself, like, unable to deal and cope and understand the world—damaged by evil? That you’ve been damaged, and that you’ve damaged others, and you feel trapped?

Do you find that you have found your hope in Jesus—that you’ve received the forgiveness that Jesus offers? That you have found healing in your own relationships? That you have hope?

But maybe sometimes we get stuck here and say, “Well, it’s all about that,” and then, “I’m waiting for heaven.” But—

Or do you find yourself engaged, a part of a community, sent as a healed people to bring healing—to proclaim the good news?

This is where Paul finds himself. This is where Paul rejoices to be. He rejoices in his suffering as a servant who’s been caught up in the big story that God is writing for the world.

And this is what he praises the Colossian church for. He says, “You were once under the dominion of darkness, but now you have been transferred to the kingdom of light. Now in you there is faith, hope, and love. And in you the gospel is bearing fruit in all the world.”

And so Paul here is describing the joy and the beauty and the invitation to not only be saved, but to be a part of the work that God is doing in the world—sent together to heal.

What do you think? I didn’t make that up, by the way. Okay, I’ll give credit. I think it was come up with by a guy from InterVarsity about 20 years ago.

I think this is a beautiful description. And so it asks:

Where are you?

If you’re here, give your life to Jesus. Come under at least the loving rule and reign and authority of God. Be healed.

If you find yourself stuck here, and you’re just kind of enjoying all the blessings but not joining in the movement of resistance—what would it look like to come here, and to join the work of God in the healing of the world?